Cheesemaking: How to Make Mozzarella

When I first found out I’d have a haul of free raw milk, I thought I’d have to wait around until I could order some cheesemaking supplies in from an online store, but luckily, my friend Vanessa had a kit in her pantry that she’d never used, so we had somewhere to start while I waited for more supplies to arrive.

The kit she had was a Mad Millie Beginner’s Italian Kit and had everything we needed to get started right away, except for the milk, ice and some rubber gloves. Kiwis can get one online or I’ve also seen them at my local Bin Inn in Kerikeri as well as the RD1. Mad Millie also has a US-based website where the Yanks can find local stockists. Full disclosure, I’ve got nothing to do with the company aside from having used their kit last week and found it to be an excellent beginner’s kit with good supplies and clear instructions.

Supplies you will need:
Sterilizable cheesemaking or candy thermometer with long probe- digital preferable as you just don’t have to squint at it as much
Sterilizing solution such as Iodphor, bleach or plain old boiling water
Large pot to hold at least 4 litres of milk
Large slotted spoon
Large bowl or pot for hot water
Large bowl or pot for ice water
Iodine-free salt
2 teaspoons Citric acid
1/2 Rennet tablet
2 ml Calcium chloride (optional but suggested if not using raw milk)
Pipette able to measure 2ml as above
1/4 cup unchlorinated water
Cheesecloth/Butter muslin
Colander
Ice
Rubber gloves

Getting down to Cheesy Business

The first thing you’ll need to do before making your cheese is sterilize your pots, pans and implements-anything that will touch your milk or touch something that will touch your milk. The kit came with Idophor, a iodine-based sterilizing solution that is mixed at one capful per 2 litres of water. I set up my sink as a sterile area and sterilized all items in it for a minimum of two minutes as suggested in the instructions.

The milk we got we placed into sterilized containers when we got it, so we were prepared from the outset. Any milk you collect should go into pre-sterilized containers as well. Anything you buy from the grocery store will, of course, be sterile.

Sterilize your cheese cooking pot and large measuring cup, measure out 4 litres of milk and pour it into the cooking pot.
Mad Millie suggests using a bain-marie/double boiler approach. This is no doubt an excellent idea. I did it for the first batch, but abandoned it for subsequent batches as I simply had too much milk to get through and not enough volume to get through it with a bain-marie. I managed fine and did not scorch my milk by heating my milk gently. If you are only making small batches, stick with the bain-marie. If you are trying to get through 40 litres of milk, you’ll probably do like I did and go for direct heat.

Add 1/2 tablet of rennet diluted in 1/4 cup of unchlorinated water stirring well as you add it to the milk. Remove your pot from the heat. Our water is chlorinated, so I used water that had been sitting out in the open overnight which allows the chlorine to dissipate. Don’t fool yourself that any old bottled water will be unchlorinated-a lot of bottled water comes straight from some random town water supply, so beware! Glacier water like Evian would be fine though.

Leave your milk until the curd has formed and you can make a firm cut in the curd, probably half an hour to an hour. Cut the curd into 2cm (1 inch) cubes.

Cutting the curd-note the firm cuts.

Heat the curd up to 42 degrees C (108 degrees F) stirring constantly but gently then remove the curd from the whey with a slotted spoon into a colander that has been lined with cheese cloth. Save the whey. You’ll want it to make whey ricotta!

Mozzarella curd draining.

Let the curd drain for 5 minutes meanwhile prepare:

A large bowl of hot water at 70 degrees C (158 degrees F) and a large bowl of ice water that is 10-20% salt using iodine-free salt. That’s about 130g (4.6 oz) of salt per litre of water to get around the 15% mark.

Using sterilized rubber gloves grab a big handful of curd, squish it into a ball and drop it on the hot water bowl and leave it for 20 seconds.

Grab that mozzarella curd. Don’t be shy!

Pull it out and give it a good stretch then squish it back together into a ball and plop it back into the hot water.

Stretch that mozzarella!

You’ll want to repeat this until you have cheese that is stretchy, glossy and that will form into a nice round ball. Once it does all that, plunge it into the salted ice water bath. Repeat with remaining curd, reheating water if required. Remove your cheese balls after 20 minutes or pat dry and try not to eat them all!

4 litres of milk worth of mozzarella balls. My second go was much prettier!

Keep your bocconcini (mozzarella balls) in the fridge dry or in water for a week or freeze them dry for longer (you may want to grate them first). Don’t store them in brine or they are likely to go slimy.

Have you ever made cheese? What kind did you make? Wanted to make cheese but haven’t yet? Christmas is coming and cheesemaking kits are pretty reasonably priced gifts, so put ’em on your wish list!

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Fantail
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November 18, 2011

Hmm am definitetly tempted to give this a go myself now, am now wishing we were still farming as the free access to raw milk would be great, am wondering too though how well would it work with powdered milk? Just a random thought as I read throught the comments.

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My gut reaction to the idea of making cheese from powered milk is “EEEEEW GROSS”, but hey, don’t let that stop ya, if you want to try. I suspect the curd wouldn’t form up to well, to tell you the truth, but if you google around, I’m sure SOMEONE has tried it in the past.

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Very cool tutorial. I have only ever made paneer and ricotta but you’ve inspired me to try something a bit more involved like mozarella. Are there any other possible substitutes for the calcium chloride?Meryl recently posted..Baking Bread

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I don’t know of any substitute, but if you are using raw milk, you don’t need it. It’s also a standard cheesemaking ingredient and can be bought separately from the Mad Millie cheesemaking kits and costs less than $5. I think I saw it for $3.90 at my local Bin Inn.

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Hmmm – never seen rennet in our baking aisle, but I’ll have to look closer – otherwise I have everything else in the house!

And speaking of smoking… have you ever seen a little tool called the Smoking Gun (yes, really) in NZ? It’s a little tool that heats up wood chips to infuse dishes with smoke without lighting up a big smoker. It would be perfect for small-batch cheeses.Casey recently posted..Food is Complicated. Making it Shouldn’t Be.

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I do cook and experiment while cooking, but I haven’t tried to make my own ingredients in my cooking. Now, I may try this procedure to make my home-made mozzarella since its a pretty expensive cheese that is available in the market.Maria Pavel recently posted..Certified Nursing Assistant Certification

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Frugal Man
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November 3, 2011

I think this process allows for a few more variables and is less likely to wind up with odd things happening that the novice cheesemaker doesn’t understand. That doesn’t mean that simpler processes wouldn’t work though.

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You know, I just saw rennet in the grocery store today (in the baking aisle) and thought that it has something to do with cheese. I would really like to try to do this sometime and you’ve made it seem accessible to me now.NoPotCooking recently posted..Salmon with Broccoli and Artichoke Hearts